DDB Mudra Group sends four entries to Cannes Lions 2024

DDB Mudra Group has entered four campaigns across multiple categories for Cannes Lions 2024. The campaigns were crafted for Disney Star, McDonald’s, Battlegrounds Mobile India and NPCIS. The campaigns for Disney Star and McDonald’s focus on inclusivity, while the campaigns for Battlegrounds Mobile India and NPCIS utilize humour to engage their target audiences.

Words of Pride, Disney Star

Disney Star has 700 spoken and 22 major regional languages. However, for over 125 million LGBTQIA+ individuals, there were no known words of respect—only words of disrespect were prevalent. Content often perpetuated these negative terms. Disney Star aimed to introduce India to respectful words for the community, integrating them into everyday vocabulary. 

Disney Star curated "Words of Pride," a glossary of respectful terms for addressing India’s LGBTQIA+ community. An accessible website with pronunciations and contextual examples was created to make Indian languages more inclusive. This effort involved 150 linguists, experts, queer groups, and allies who invested 30 months of research and 7000 hours of collaboration. They delved into historical and contemporary texts, uncovering over 246 respectful words in 7 regional languages.

The campaign demonstrated that Indian languages have always been inclusive, but people were unaware of the respectful terms. It was time to unlearn words of hate and learn "Words of Pride." 

Through the campaign, audiences viewed over 560 million minutes of WOP-inspired content. The initiative sparked conversations with cultural influencers like authors, lyricists, and advertisers at notable platforms such as the Jaipur LitFest and the Advertising Standards Council of India. The campaign achieved 92% positive sentiment, garnered over 94.5 million video views, and generated over 285,000 engagements.

EatQual Colours, McDonald’s India

Food paints us a picture, and it is this picture that triggers cravings and builds anticipation. This is why visual representation is one of the most important parts of the customer journey when it comes to food. However, for the approximately 70 million colour-blind individuals in India, this magic diminishes. Picture juicy red tomatoes, traditionally associated with deliciousness, losing their lustre and appearing dull grey. The excitement vanishes.  McDonald’s India believes that choosing food should not be a guessing game and that everyone should enjoy the delightful excitement and promise of a McDonald’s meal.

The campaign is part of the brand’s inclusivity platform EatQual, which was launched three years back. As it continues to expand its efforts with EatQual, the brand widened the lens of the McDonald’s experience to tackle an inequity that is often invisible. 

The experience of eating a McDonald’s meal starts well before you take the first bite. But for a large section of the population with colour blindness, that experience was a muted one. To make the ordering process visually appealing for everyone, the brand developed McDelivery into the first colour-blind-friendly delivery app in India, introducing the 'Colour-Blind Friendly' technology feature and launching it on World Sight Day, October 12, 2023. 

The feature helps users select from three colour enhancement options that allow colour-blind people (people with colour deficiency disorder) to see the real colour of their food and drinks. All the McDonald’s commercials on YouTube now come with the option to be viewed as per one’s colour blindness. It enhanced the in-store experience to ensure that all the touchpoints reiterated its commitment to inclusivity.

Within six months, the colour-blind friendly feature improved McDonald's brand perception and impacted revenue growth positively and around 16% of all McDelivery orders were placed using the colour-blind friendly feature. 

Battlegrounds Mobile India - Royale Pass

In today's world, our online personas are growing in importance. With people’s identities and achievements increasingly tied towards their digital lifestyle, other related elements also followed suit - more specifically, their online clout, which became tied to their virtual presence. 

Battlegrounds Mobile India, an online multiplayer battle royale game by Krafton launched its new Royale Pass, a seasonal gateway to exclusive gear and a key to enhancing a player’s rank. But it's more than just in-game goodies. The Royale Pass is designed to be a calling card in Battlegrounds Mobile India. It's a mark of distinction recognised by everyone the player has defeated. 

The ad film captures this perfectly. A gamer with a Royale Pass tattoo is instantly recognised by fellow players who comically drop to the ground in mock defeat. By connecting the Royale Pass to online clout, the brand aimed to enhance the virtual experience and make it a must-have for any serious player.

The ad film received over 10 million+ views and six million+ engagement just within a few days of the launch. 

Slippery Spy, NPCIS

RuPay Credit Card is perceived as the desi, Indian cousin of Mastercard and Visa and was the only Credit Card in India that worked on UPI (instant digital payment method). So, during IPL, the Indian cricket Superbowl, the brand and agency took on other cards, with a film campaign that showed vendors rejecting credit cards, when you needed it the most. While credit card penetration has a lot of room to grow in India, UPI (instant digital payment method) has grown tremendously over the last four years with over 70 million merchants on UPI.

The film is about a couple of police detectives who have come to a bar, searching for a spy. Thankfully, the spy spots them just before the bartender gives him away. The spy gets luckier still, as just then a man selling moles is passing by the bar. The spy quickly grabs a mole and slaps it on his face as the detectives look towards him. They compare him to the picture they have and they aren't convinced it's him, because of the mole. Relieved the spy whips out his card to pay the vendor, but the vendor rejects it saying he only accepts UPI payment. In the same breath, the vendor snatches back his mole, just when the detectives turn for a second look. Suddenly his lucky day becomes an unlucky one just because he didn't have the right card.

The post-campaign brand scores on pride of being a RuPay user amongst the core TG improved too with users saying "It is for people like me" going up by 20% and "Is a Card network brand I would aspire to have" went up by 21%.